One of the many pleasures associated with the discovery of creative content that stimulates or moves us, is the sharing of that content with friends, family, or peers. Consider music content, for example. Historically, music content was recorded or stored on a physical medium, which served as a tangible proxy for the music it carried. Over time, the physical manifestation of that tangible proxy evolved, for example, from vinyl records, to magnetic tape cartridges, to optical compact discs (CDs), but the relationship of the music content to the medium storing the music was essentially inseparable. In that environment, in order to share content with others, we either had to share the experience in common, i.e., listen to the music together, or we had to temporarily transfer possession of the medium storing the content, e.g., I lend a CD to my friend and concurrently relinquish possession of the CD for the period of the loan.
Today, however, much of the creative content we consume is likely to be in the form of digital media files, which are readily reproduced, in whole or in part, and redistributed using our personal computers (PCs) or other increasingly ubiquitous personal communication devices. Consequently, while advances in technology have made it easier than ever before to make content available for others to enjoy, those advances no longer require that we share the content in the traditional sense described above, because we are no longer required to relinquish the ability to access an item of content in order to make that content available to another. As a result, the natural and constructive social impulse to share what we find pleasurable with others may lead to the unwitting redistribution of creative content in a manner that undermines the legitimate proprietary rights and valid commercial interests of the creators of the very content we most enjoy.